She carefully toured the entire inside perimeter, peering into every door that it seemed permissible to peer into, checking hidden nooks and corners, any place that resembled storage or quarters going unused. Finally, she located what she’d been hoping for, a tiny schoolroom. Charlotte’s instincts told her there had to have been, at one time or another, officers with children and therefore a place for schooling. And here it was, dusty, shuttered, definitely, for the moment at least, abandoned so that she could take what she wanted while feeling hardly any guilt at all.
She was glad to be the last back instead of the first. Ada and Jeremy hadn’t turned up a chicken. Brewster, on the other hand, true to form, had won the prize, a thick stack of impressive bond with the letterhead of the United States Army.
“Brewster, will we be in trouble? How did you come up with this?”
“I went to Mrs. Hutchinson. She’s the one who gave it to me.”
“Of course you went to Mrs. Hutchinson. Why bother with all the little people? Just go to the top.”
“It’s good, isn’t it?” he said.
“It’s grand. And so are you. But we should start the journals right away.” She picked up a slate and a piece of chalk. “This is what I found. I wanted to write down the date, because that’s what makes it a journal. Now I realize I have no idea what the date is.”
Brewster took the slate and chalk from her and wrote the date.
“Young man, someday you will do great things.”
“Because I know the date?”
“No, for a whole list of reasons that I’m not going to let you know about, not just yet.”
In the afternoon, Charlotte followed the part of her instructional plan that said go outside, away from the fort and everything in it, away from books and journals and pens and slates. She retrieved the pickets from the wagon.
“Today we’ll start setting the horses out to pasture. And the cow.”
“The cow?” Ada said.
“If you were a cow, wouldn’t you like to eat the fresh rich grass down by the river?”
“I never exactly thought about what it would be like to be a cow.”
Charlotte served another picnic lunch while the animals grazed peacefully. When Charlotte stood up with Grace on her hip, Grace said one word. “Down.”
Charlotte laughed.
“Good job,” Ada said.
“I guess.”
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